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All is suave contemporary correctness at this enviably located luxury hotel whose Panorama Bar overlooks the square of the Bolshoi Theatre. The cleverly designed atrium avoids the usual airport concourse feel and the lobby is actually a pleasant place to meet your colleagues. Part-financed by Armenian magnates, the hotel occupies a spot once favoured by Armenian intellectuals (and others) as a café. Although everything else in the hotel is high-tech, one tiny corner of traditionalism remains in the Armenian café adjoining the main lobby. Its sumptuous (yet remarkably mid-priced) cuisine is prepared by the former chef of the president of Armenia, who was head-hunted for the hotel.
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AST-Gof is not at all central, but would be of interest to anyone whose business in Moscow involves the Expo Centre, as it is the nearest acceptable hotel to the exhibition site (although still not close). Rooms are clean and tidy in the Scandinavian style and multilingual helpful staff work at reception— everything you’d expect in a three-star hotel, in fact. There is an attractive park directly opposite the hotel, which is 10 minutes’ walk from Bagrationovskaya metro. One meeting room is available.
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One of the city’s longest-lasting five-star contenders, the Kempinski has been providing high-end accommodation since 1992. The stunning location on the riverside separates it from the city centre, but places it among the offices of oil companies, banks and pension funds in this affluent neighbourhood. Purpose-built, the designers foresaw the need for conference facilities in a Moscow that then sorely lacked them—up to 200 people can attend meetings at the hotel. If the room rates aren’t a problem for you, the walking distance to the nearest Metro is unlikely to worry you much either.
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Golden Apple is Moscow’s only candidate for hip hotel status, but while the post-modernist designs (and the Golden Apple itself, which fills the entire lobby) meet the criteria with aplomb, there’s still something slightly creaky about the management style. Russians just don’t do laid-back/relaxed very well, though it isn’t for lack of trying, and they’ve set themselves a high target here which they may well hit. In the heart of theatre-land they clearly pitch at a luvvy clientele. LenKom Theatre is around the corner, Novaya Opera on the next street and the area throbs with the louche lounges beloved of the smart, moneyed, young set.
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A breath of Scandinavian fresh air among the otherwise heavily traditional hotels in the high-end category. Purpose-built into a new office/arts complex, guests here are very likely to be employees of the multinational corporations whose offices are across the footbridge, or perhaps major music artistes appearing at Moscow’s largest and newest concert hall opposite. Up to 130 people can fit into the largest of the hotel’s eight conference rooms. Arrivals on British Airways, Swissair or Trans-Aero will find this hotel within five minutes’ walk of Paveletsky Station, the city end of the AeroExpress train service to Domodedovo Airport.
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